LISA MORO is standing in the kitchen of her family's Greenvale home, in the shadow of her brother, who is behind her, arms crossed, elbows resting on her head. "This is Stephen," she says. "We're twins."

It seems impossible. Stephen Moro is head and shoulders taller than his sister, his arms thicker, his hands easily able to hold two of hers. Of the staggering difference in size, the twins' mother, Luisa Moro, says: "It's the gymnastics. It's kept Lisa small."

"Small" does not describe it: Lisa is not just short but very, very thin. Her spine is clearly visible through her shirt and, at 14, she is built like a girl of nine.

"I worry about it," Mrs Moro says," particularly when she gets dark around the eyes, and at competition time, when she looks . . . well, like hasn't eaten at all."

Lisa's size is but one in a long list of concerns the Moros have as Lisa chases an Olympic dream. A gymnast since she was six - and a national champion at 13 - Lisa wants to go to the Atlanta Games.

To do so, she has given up much. But so too has her family.

Her father, Graziano, her mother, and her brothers, Stephen and Andrew, have learnt that participation in the Olympics comes at a cost. "Will it be worth it if she makes the team?" Mr Moro asks. "It's worth it, even if she doesn't.

"What is the role of parents if not to give children every opportunity to live their dreams?"

The Moro family moved to Greenvale, near Tullamarine, when Lisa was three, but have since spent considerable time on the freeway.

"We came here because we wanted a bigger house, four bedrooms, in a young neighborhood and we couldn't afford anything closer, " Mr Moro said. "It wasn't of any interest to us then that the state gymnastics centre was in Cheltenham."

But the centre became the focus of their lives. Lisa's talent was spotted when she was 10, after years of doing handstands in supermarkets and cartwheeling in the street, when Victoria's head gymnastics coach, Fiona Bird, suggested she might like to train in Cheltenham, where the goal is Olympic glory.

At first Mr Moro said no, concerned about the 100-kilometre return journey. But the family was urged to give it a try.

"We thought we'd do it for three months and, if it didn't work out, if she didn't like it, she could always stop," he said. Like it Lisa did, and so began three years of commuting.

Andrew, the eldest of the Moro children, remembers feeling neglected: "They wanted to shift to be near the gym, and I didn't want to," he said. "And mum and dad couldn't drive us around much, they were always off with Lisa. I felt like she got more attention." Then two years ago, aged 12, Lisa moved to Cheltenham, where she shares a home with a guardian, Heather McIntosh, and her daughter, and three other gymnasts from the state program.

"It was very hard, although Luisa found it harder than I did," Mr Moro said. "She was very young, but I feel she was ready. Before 12, I wouldn't have wanted it, and she wouldn't have wanted to go." Since moving, Lisa has had a gruelling program, training from 7am until 10am, going to school, returning to the gym between 3pm and 7pm, then doing homework. The Moros admit to sometimes feeling: "No, this is too much for a little girl." But there were rewards. Lisa has travelled to China, Europe and America, and won gold medals at the national championships in 1994 and 1995.

That Lisa is now being considered for the Olympics is enough to reassure the Moros that the sacrifices were worthwhile, although Mrs Moro still worries about her daughter's size.

"We know one girl from Craigieburn who was very small, and now she's stopped gymnastics and she's really shot up.

"They say they catch up, but I don't know. I don't want her to have trouble, you know, with periods. She has bone scans, and they say it's all OK." For her part, Lisa thinks she eats enough, although she sometimes feels hungry, and she is doing well at school, although she does not carry the full load and has had to make new friends.

She enjoys the travel, and the lessons learnt.

"You see other cultures, see how other people live," she said. "And when I started, there were things I thought I couldn't do, and they pushed me, and I believe now, even when I'm scared, that I can do things." Of going to the Olympics, Lisa is overwhelmed - "I mean, like, terrific." If selected, she knows a medal is unlikely, given the dominance of gymnasts from Eastern Europe and Russia but, mostly, she wants to do her best. "That's all I can do."